ression of
emotions. How rash of the player to trust entirely to his own ideas, and
not avail himself of the knowledge of others! Some may regard such
conduct as exhibiting originality: it is, however, a sad waste of time
to try to find out for oneself what others are willing and able to
teach, and there is a great risk of error.

Moreover, the mime teaches grace of movement and pose, and enables the
player to employ usefully the limbs which as a rule seem an encumbrance
to him. The poor ladies have not even trouser-pockets wherein to hide
the hands, the existence of which embarrasses them, but they can conceal
the legs, which so often are troublesome to the actor.

The restlessness of English acting--one of its worst faults--is, I
believe, due to the player feeling half-consciously that he does not
know what to do when he is not speaking. In a conversation scene, during
which two finely trained artists would not leave their seats, our
players generally appear to be having a game of musical chairs; and
actors could be named who take their "constitutionals" on the stage.
Moreover, one very rarely sees a player listening effectively, yet I
have watched an actor who, though silent during a long speech, has by
means of finely studied poses and nicely calculated gestures greatly
increased the force of the speech to which he was supposed to be
listening. No doubt all actors and actresses seek the aid of pose and
gesture and get advice from stage-managers: very often the case is one
of the blind leading the blind.

It will be objected that a study of such a system may tend to make the
player mechanical, and also to cause all the members of a company to
resemble one another too greatly: there is some truth in the objection.
Still, this is an abuse not inseparable from the use. The intelligent
mime fully recognizes the fact that the gestures proper to the members
of one class of people are not necessarily suitable to those of another,
and that there are individual differences as well. He distinguishes
between the sober, and therefore striking, gesture of the Englishman and
the unimpressive gesticulation of the meridional; between the poses of
the king and attitudes of the peasant, and so on.

The highly trained artist knows how, upon rare occasions, to produce a
great effect by conscious breach of a rule. To argue against a use from
a _needless_ abuse is not legitimate, a proposition dear to Jeremy
Bentham. There is also a g